Plywood Plank Walls

Here’s the thing.  Originally I was going to use the old barn wood somewhere in one of my builds, but after years of being stacked out in the weather it is all too far gone.  Plywood cut into planks (like you see on floors sometimes) seemed like a reasonable substitute, cheap, and easy to use.  Turns out this is all true.  It also turns out that if you use really really low-end plywood, the end result is not the sleek look I was expecting.  Instead, I’ve ended up with a rustic, cottage-y looking effect, which actually looks interesting.  So instead of this look found on http://www.domesticimperfection.com/2012/09/painted-plank-walls-finally/:

Smooth and lovely plywood plank walls

we have this:

Interior walls up. The corners will have molding to hide the spaces!

It might be difficult to discern in the picture, but the walls are far from smooth.  Instead, each of the planks show what I like to call “personality”…bowing, sticking out a bit, and different textures.  Visitors and curious bystanders tell me it looks fine, so we’ll go with that.

Caulking the plywood planked walls

A cool thing happened during this part of the build.  Those metal bars that angle up the walls?  In the way the entire time I’ve worked on this place.  I was more than pleased when the planks slid behind them and into the small space between them and the studs perfectly.  As in, I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d actually tried.  Lucky, lucky.

Walls going in behind the metal bars.  And yes, that’s Leo photobombing.

I used 3″ screws to attach each board to the studs.  This house will be bouncing and jouncing on rough roads and tracks, and I don’t want anything popping loose.  I did my best to sink the heads and cover them with a silicone/latex caulk to hide them, but I wasn’t always successful.  Likewise with the ceiling.  Normal caulk like you would use in your normal house, didn’t cut it.  There was too much shrinking and cracking.  The caulk I used works better under these circumstances, and is relatively easy to smooth, and to build layers as needed.  It paints well, too.  Overall, I’m happy with the results.

OK!  Here’s the rub:  I wanted to mirror the colors on my favorite skirt, a lovely combination of oranges, pinks, yellows and greens.  It’s very summery and cheerful.  However, translating those colors to this space is not going as I envisioned, and here is the current look:

OMG PINK

Yeah.  not what I was looking for.  Pepto, anyone?  The lightest pale yellow on the ceiling and upper walls just looks like old, yellowed white paint.  Argh!  What to do?

To start with, I’m going to paint over all the yellow with a bright, shiny white.  I realize glossy paints bring up imperfections, but this whole build is one giant imperfection so that really doesn’t matter.  Glossy paint reflects light, and in such a small space, light is very important.  Even that pale, pale yellow has visibly reduced the amount of  light I perceive.  I’ll paint the white down the walls to about 2/3s down, covering much of that pink.  At that point, I’ll start blending in the yellow.  Below that, I’ll blend in the oranges with a touch of red, and blend those down into the pink area.  I’m hoping for a sort of sunrise effect.  We’ll see how that goes!

Feel free to share your painting horror stories if you like in the comments.  We’ll all understand and sympathize.  🙂  I’m off to work some more on the new roof now, so talk at you all later. o/